WEATHER: It will be partly
cloudy through Saturday. High Friday
will be in the middle 50s to middle 60s.
1 Friday night, low will be in the 30s to
| lower 40s
November 13, 1987
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Inside:
| News Digest.Page 2
| Editorial.Page 4
Sports.Page 6
1 Entertainment.Page 5
Classified.Page 6
Vol.87 No.57
Retirement plan holds little stock for employees
By Lee Kooa
Senior Reporter
Now is not the best time for Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln employees
to retire, say university finance pro
fessors.
“Black Monday” and more recent
drops in the Dow Jones have reduced
the value of some UNL professors’
and administrators’ retirement plans.
Because retirement plans at UNL
consist of a percentage of an employ
ees’ gross income divided between
stocks and bonds, some employees
lost more tnan oiners.
How much of that retirement
money, contributed by UNL and the
employee, is put toward stocks or the
bond fund is up to the individual
employee.
According to Greg Clayton, direc
tor of insurance and benefits at UNL,
some employees lost more money
than others because they had invested
a higher percentage of their money in
the stock fund, called the College
Retirement Equity Fund.
While some professors may have
iosi up 10 ju percent oi tne money tney
have earned in recent years, they arc
still ahead of the game from what they
started out with, said Leonard
Bcrckson, UNL finance professor.
Berekson said employees who
have been investing their retirement
money for any length of lime should
be doing fairly well despite the current
bear market.
“It’s not as bad as it looks for a
faculty member who has been here a
long time, as long as they are not going
to retire tomorrow,” he said.
iviost iacuity manners wm ne anie
to ride out their losses because their
stock is “on paper” until they retire,
Berckson said.
“Unless there is a really great de
pression,” Berckson said, “In that
case, all bets arc off.”
Most faculty members split their
retirement investment equally be
tween the equity fund and the bond
fund,Teachers Insuranceand Annuity
Association, to prevent losing too
much money in the changing market,
Berckson said.
mcnaru ucrusco, anuuici ui'il
finance professor, said he and other
faculty members have switched some
of their bond investment to stocks
recently because stocks arc cheap
now.
In the future, if the market does all
right, employees will make more
money for retirement, he said.
“Since I’m young, I’m hopefully
going to ride this out,” DeFusco said.
Berekson said he keeps his invest
mentsplitcvenly, because he iscloser *
to retirement.
“I did it for safety,” he said.
Hey, wait a minute, Mr. rostman!
By Anne Mohri
Staff Reporter
KersiPajnigar, director of business
affairs at the Wick Alumni Center,
said w hen he goes to hisoffice he often
mails his letters at the mailbox on the
comer of 16th and R streets.
But early this week he and many
others could not.
“On thatparticularday 1 had a letter
to mail and the box was gone,” Pajni
gar said.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service
is offering a $200 reward for informa
tion leading to the arrest of whoever is
responsible for stealing the mailbox
earlier this week.
Doug Emery, manager of the De
livery' and Collection Office in Lin
coln, said the mailbox was reported
missing at 9 a.in. Tuesday. Emery said
the mailbox will be replaced by
Monday.
Steve Hix, an Omaha postal in
spector, said with a mailbox theft
“potentially there are six felonies that
could be involved.” Penalties for the
felony include up to a $10,(XX) fine
and 10 years in prison.
Hix said crimes like this arc either
pranks or professional crimes, and
because of die location of the stolen
mailbox, the post office suspects this
one to be a prank.
“We want to make people aware it
is serious,” Hix said.
Lt. Frank Rowe of the Lincoln
Police Department said police have no
suspects yet.
Emery said w hen mailboxes gel
stolen, they are usually found the next
d.iy, sometimes in yards or on the
street. Postal officials talked to mem
bers of nearby fraternities and sorori
ties about the theft, Emery said.
Hix said he would like to speak to
anyone who used the mailbox be
tween 5:30 Monday afternoon and 9
a.m. Tuesday.
“I’d like to find out if they have any
information, if they noticed anyone
around the box,” Hix said.
He said there is a good chance the
mail is still inside the mailbox.
Emery said each leg of the mailbox
is boiled to a concrete slab. The bolts
were found broken off.
“It lcx)kcd like somebody just
rocked it off,” Emery said.
The mailbox is valued at $ 135, but
:hc price is not important, Mix said.
“Our primary concern is to get the
nailbox back and any mail inside it,”
le said.
Hix said penalties for stealing a
nailbox could be one or more of the
following:
•theftof properly used by the Postal
Service could have a maximum fine of
SI ,000 or three years in jail or both.
•if there is mail in the mailbox,
theft or possession of stolen mail
could have a fine of S2.000 or five
years in jail or both.
•if two or more people are in
volved, conspiracy could have a fine
of $10,000or f ive years in jail or both.
•if mail is inside, obstruction of
correspondence could have a fine of
$2,000 or five years in jail or both.
•if the mailbox is destroyed, there
could be a fine of $ 1,0(X) or three years
in jail or both.
•ifkcysor locksare stolen or repro
duced, there could be a fine of $500 or
10 years in jail or both.
Employees bid for salary hike
By Brandon Loomis
Staff Reporter
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln
administrators and employees voiced
concern not only for faculty salaries
but for salaries of all university em
ployees at an open forum in the East
Union Thursday.
Vi Schroeder, UNL director of
publications and mail services, said at
the University Association for Ad
ministrative Development forum that
a good faculty is essential to a good
university, but the loyalty of all uni
versity employees is equally impor
tant. Current legislation deals only
with faculty salaries, she said, not with
the bulk of the university’s employ
ees.
“I don’t know why people work
here and arc loyal,” she said.
A panel including UNL Chancellor
Martin Massengale, Regent John
Payne of Kearney, and Sens. Shirley
Marsh and James McFarland, both of
Lincoln, commented on the financial
situation of the university and state,
and answered questions before a
crowd of about 80 people.
Massengale said employees stay at
the university despite low salaries
because they are able to make the best
of conditions.
“That’s the kind of people we are in
this state,” he said.
But university employees deserve
pay increases because they are 12 to
14 percent behind state workers doing
similar jobs, Massengale said.
Payne said in each of the past three
fiscal years ihe University of Ne
braska Board of Regents has asked the
Legislature for about a 10 percent
increase in faculty salaries and has
only received increases of about 3
percent. Since 1982, he said, the uni
versity has taken more than $14 mil
lion in midyear reductions because of
“limited state dollars.”
But Marsh said revenue projec
tions indicate more money may be
available this year.
“I’d like to see some of those dol
lars spent, not all put on hold,” she
said.
Marsh said students and employees
who are concerned about faculty sal
ary increases should talk to their sena
tors.
See UAAD on 3
Doug Carroll/Dally Nabraafcan
He does do windows
Daryl Bell reaches high for a spot while cleaning win
dows Wednesday afternoon. Bell, owner and operator
of Clearview Window Service, was cleaning the bottom
row of plate-glass windows at the NBC Building down
town. Bell said his company cleans the windows once
a week, even during the winter Mif it isn’t too cold.”
Latvians suffer under Soviet rule, dissident says
By Kip Fry
Stiff Reporter
A Latvian dissident told the press
Thursday there is no comparison be
tween Soviet-ruled Latvia and the
United States because Latvia lacks
human rights.
Rolands Silaraups spoke at a press
conference through an interpreter at
the Nebraska Union Thursday to ex
plain what he and his country have
endured under the Soviets.
Silaraups, who was imprisoned for
distributing literature promoting in
dependence of Latvia from Soviet
rule, said the Soviet Constitution is
not even recognized by the Soviets.
Latvia also has what is called “free
medicine," hut if you have to rely on
it “you will perish,” he said.
Silaraups could no longer sit back
and watch his native Latvia be ruled
oppressively by the Soviet regime, so
he participated in several protests that
led to his imprisonment.
Latvia, once an independent nation
on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea,
was annexed by the Soviet Union in
1939.
Silaraups, 22, was recently re
leased from what he called a concen
tration camp. Although he was ini
tially sentenced to five years in prison
and two years of exile for distributing
literature promoting freedom for I .at
via, he was released unexpectedly
after only four months with a number
of other prisoners of conscience.
“He can only thank President Re
agan and the American government
for his release,” his interpreter said.
Many prisoners w ho have to spend
longer terms in Latvian prisons are
often broken both physically and
emotionally, he said.
“It is very difficult for Americans
never having experienced anything
like that tocomprehcnd what a terrible
horror it was.” lie said. People sent
there have to give a great deal of their
lives, he said.
I lesaid the camp was much like the
Nazi concentration camps during
World War II.
While in prison, he met Linards
Grantins, the leader of “Helsinki '86,“
the opposition group responsible for
many of the demonstrations in Riga.
After his release, Silaraups partici
pated in another demonstration this
June and took over leadership of
“Helsinki ’86.” Authorities then ex
pelled him from the country, he said.
Silaraups’ mother and sister are
still in Latvia, although he said they
are in no immediate danger as long as
he is in the United Stales. F.fforts have
begun to gel them out of the country,
he said.
Silaraups said that eventually he
would like to live in Washington,
D.C., where he would be able lo work
for the Latvian cause. He would not
give any specific plans so the KGB
would not find out.
Silaraups is now louring the United
Stales until the end of the year to tell
his story.
In the United States, he said, some
one can work and be paid adequately 4
for it. Latvian workers work many
hours a day and barely get enough
money to pay their bills, he added.
Silaraups said any changes in the
Soviet-ruled territory brought about
by Mikhail Gorbachev are not from
the heart, but are just a show lor the
See LATVIA on 3
